Yey! Things are moving forward! I've had two epiphanies since yesterday - I've figured out a new way to reduce noise selectively using the Nik Collection, and a new, much faster way to fake a narrow DOF.
Let's deal with the noise first. Sometimes, the name of a thing can blind you to the effect is has. The Nik Collection includes a filter called Dynamic Skin Softener that reduces texture in, you guessed it, skin tones. But, you have the ability to redefine what should be accounted as "skin", which means that you can soften any color you like by using the pipette tool. Neat huh? That helps a lot when changing a portion of an image drastically, like say when you use the Detail Extractor to bring out a sky and it becomes "too noisy". I wish I had figured that out sooner.
Next, lets talk about the fake DOF. Before, I used do that in a very time-consuming way. I used the lasso tools to select the portion I wanted to keep sharp, copied it and put it on a new layer. After that I went back to the base layer, cloned the areas close to the "copied part" and painted over it to minimize the bleed effect that blurring an image creates - otherwise I would end up with a give-away fuzzy "halo" around sharp area. Today I figured, why not simply cut the subjects out instead? That way there would be nothing left on the base layer to bleed from. As you can see, it worked beautifully! Tough, I had to copy the base layer three times, blur three of layers and keep a sharp one in the back so that there wouldn't be any "sharp bleed" or transparency (am I making sense here? I hope I am).
So there you have it. My two new methods, I hope they're useful to you too.
/MrsHjort
Good thinking on the blurring technique. A method I usually use is to select the subject like you do, invert the selection (to select the background), copy it to a new layer, blur it, then reload the selection, invert it back to the subject selection, then delete the hazy inside edge of the background to give a nice, clean finish against the subject. :-)
ReplyDeleteSounds like your method is way quicker though, definitely going to give it a bash.
The resultant blur is very good and convincing as lens blur. Love the colours and the ladies' expressions. Nice work. I think I might have been tempted to crop a little in from the top and the right to reduce the distracting dark bits that don't contribute to your overall composition. But I love their general arrangement in your frame.
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